


Athena: Goddess of Knowledge

by Stellabella



Series: Olympus High [6]
Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-20
Updated: 2012-11-20
Packaged: 2017-11-19 02:57:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/568283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stellabella/pseuds/Stellabella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hey. I’m Zeus. You might know me as the king of the gods and leader of all Olympus. And trust me I wish I could be, but unfortunately right now the only thing I am king of is the prom. Yeah, I’m a high school student. Yeah, it pretty much sucks. The Oracle told me to start a little diary about all my future subjects. Apparently the more I know them the easier it will be to rule them when I get older. So here we are, welcome to the inner workings of Olympus High.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Athena: Goddess of Knowledge

Athena is, how can I put this nicely, Athena is a massive nerd. When you think of the goddess of knowledge and battle strategy, you picture a strong, tall, beautiful woman, right? But in truth, at least in for now, she is a big dork who spends all her time in the library or playing ‘World of Warcraft’. She is well known as one of the ‘virgin goddess’s’, she claims that this is because a relationship would interfere with her pure knowledge or something. But honestly, and I say this in the kindest way possible, I don’t think she could get anyone even if she wanted to.   
The story of the weaving competition  
Okay, so I don’t know if you knew this, but basically Athena cannot stand spiders. She can handle deadlines, textbooks, ogres, and goblins, but the one thing she will never, ever do is get over spiders. But she wasn’t always like this. It all started back when Athena was going through her arts and crafts phase. She decided that her college application wasn’t varied enough, so she began to reach out into other areas. After a failed attempt at performance and sports, she resolved to test her skills in art. She found it hard to work up the raw emotion required for classic art, so she settled with the more crafty side of things.  
She took an immediate liking to weaving and sewing. She appreciated the time and patience that went into every tiny piece. She quickly accelerated through the ranks of the tightly knit (pun definitely intended) weaving circles, until finally she reached the pinnacle of craft making and achieved the title ‘Master Weaver’. She enjoyed being looked up to and in a weird sense she was almost, dare I say it, popular. But there was trouble in the weaving universe, and a newcomer quickly decided she wanted to knock Athena down a few pegs.   
This new member of the weaving crowd was none other than Arachne. She was Master Weaver at all twelve of her previous schools, and had left a trail of broken needles and crying dorks behind her. She too burned through the ranks until she was in prime position to challenge Athena. She began flaunting her skills around the school and claimed that she deserved the title of Master Weaver and that Athena was a washed up fraud. Athena quickly heard word that someone was challenging her reign, and she could not let this challenge go unanswered. The day these two super weavers clashed needles would go down in history.   
Their upcoming battle received so much press that a couple of the more popular gods decided to turn up, even me. We all settled in for what was expected to be the most intense weaving match ever. But we soon found out that there is no such thing as an ‘intense’ weaving match. Within the first five minutes, half of the crowd was already being lulled to sleep by the soft voice of the commentator. (That’s right, there was a commentator.) By the time the match was approaching its ‘climax’ almost the entire crowd was snoring loudly. But this didn’t seem to bother the contestants much, I can only assume that they were used to it by now. They finally finished their masterpieces and were prepared to present them to the ‘eager’ audience. Athena, being the current Master Weaver, revealed her piece first.   
The deep red cloth was whipped back and underneath was the most beautiful tapestry I had ever seen. The entire audience snapped awake and gasped at the sight of this piece of perfection. It was full of color and rich textures. I couldn’t tell what it depicted, but I am pretty sure it looked different to every single person. Everyone burst into a standing ovation and Athena smiled warmly, obviously loving the attention. Arachne audibly scoffed and rolled her eyes so hard I thought they would fall right out of her big head. She snatched the microphone out of the commentators hands “Yes, thank you so very much Athena for your... input.” Her voice dripped with so much sarcasm it was a miracle that the floor stayed dry. “But that’s enough of that, now, on to the main event. Without further ado I present the tapestry that we have all really been waiting for: my glorious masterpiece!”   
She ripped back the red curtain with a flourish and revealed something I will never forget in my entire life. Arachne, a mere mortal, had created a piece so outrageous, so horrific, that every god in the stands had to do a double take. There was a moment of silence as the terrible image before us sank in. Arachne’s final piece was a challenge to the gods themselves. The tapestry stretched far beyond Athena’s and contained an impossible number of scenes. Everywhere you looked there was an image of the gods, in the most embarrassing positions. Arachne had documented the entire history of the gods in the most blasphemous way possible. There was an image of Hera giving birth to the stunted Hephaestus, there were pictures of Apollo chasing after women like a lustful dog, and there was a detailed picture account of every single time I had ever cheated on Hera. All these and more were portrayed in their full glory on a single tapestry.  
Arachne smiled smugly, it seemed that she actually had no idea of the consequences she would have to face for her sacrilegious behavior.   
There was no way we could let her get away with this, but death would be too quick, too easy. We all turned to face Athena. Her jaw had fallen open and she was staring blankly at the tapestry, unable to tear her eyes away. When she finally turned to give Arachne judgment, she was infuriated. Arachne stared her down, threw back her head and began to laugh, a crazy maniacal laugh. Athena’s eyes blazed at the insolent behavior Arachne was showing. She pointed a single finger straight at Arachne’s heart and muttered a complicated phrase. Arachne looked up in surprise just as a loud POP echoed across the room.   
Suddenly Arachne was gone; in her place was a teeny, tiny spider. Athena leapt backwards and squealed shrilly as the spider scurried quickly towards her feet. The commentator quickly jumped out and stomped threateningly in the spider’s general direction, Arachne got the hint and quickly scuttled away. As soon as she couldn’t see it anymore, Athena jumped down and shouted at the spider as it scurried away. “Maybe that will teach you not to mess with the gods! But hey, at least now you can weave against people more to your standard!” Athena burst out laughing at her little joke. Unfortunately while she was busy doubling over with laughter, the spider decided to sneak up behind her. Athena became aware of a tiny tapping feeling, she looked down to see Arachne tapping her tiny foot impatiently on the front of Athena’s shoes. Athena screamed bloody murder and ran out of the building with a tiny spider chasing after her. To this day Athena swears Arachne is hiding under her bed, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.


End file.
